


The Tudors, Season 3, Episode 8, The Undoing of Cromwell

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e08 The Undoing of Cromwell, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Finale, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26036578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 2





	The Tudors, Season 3, Episode 8, The Undoing of Cromwell

Open to Henry informing his council that his conscience won’t allow him to consummate his marriage due to a belief it’s not legitimate. He suggests she might not have been properly released from her pre-contract with another man.

Once the meeting is dismissed, Rich tells Cromwell, like it or not, he needs to find a way to get Henry extracted from the marriage.

Later, Henry and Charles Brandon talk alone, and Charles Brandon asks if anyone had told AC what to expect. He points out it’s not fair to send a clueless virgin to the marriage bed. Not answering, Henry insists Cromwell will find a solution. Shockingly, the French king and emperor hate one another, again. Both are trying to get Henry on their side.

“Who needs Cleves?”

“My lord Cromwell,” Charles Brandon answers. “Was the match not his idea?”

Elsewhere, AC is playing the piano when Mary is announced. AC talks about a cousin named Philip who’d like to come to England to court Mary. The fact he’s a Lutheran does nothing to impress Mary.

AC assures her he’s charming and good-looking, and Mary gives a non-committal response.

In the next scene, Cromwell’s son, Gregory, appears to deliver Cromwell some medicine.

Like the scene in the last episode, this one does a good job of showing the sympathetic side to Cromwell. He and his son obviously love one another, but there’s also a sense they aren’t truly close with it being implied the cause is Cromwell’s workaholic nature.

Sitting down, they drink. When asked about his work, Cromwell explains he’s drawing some bills for Parliament. He’s trying to convince Henry to appoint council members based on merit alone.

Gregory declares Cromwell looks tired, and Cromwell tries to wave this off. When Gregory asks about Henry, he explains Henry is frequently irritable due to his bad leg. In a tone I can’t quite place, Gregory asks, “Is that why he strikes you on the head, sometimes?”

Cromwell doesn’t answer he’ll take being smacked and pushed against walls to having a dagger pointed at him. Instead, he declares, “I resent the king nothing. Others seek to undermine me since I was born so low, and they so high. And for other reasons, too.”

I wonder if this means he’s finally realised what Charles Brandon’s actual problem with him is.

Seeing Gregory’s expression, he says, “Think none on that. Go off to your own dear wife and the child in her belly. Love them as you love God and His holy word. All shall be well.”

Elsewhere, Charles Brandon and Francis discuss Henry. Charles Brandon wants to find Henry a mistress.

He claims Henry has become jaded towards court ladies, but I think he’s just afraid of what might happen if Henry’s allowed to choose his own. Considering what does happen, this is darkly ironic.

Francis agrees to help. “In this matter, at least, your grace, I shall not fail the king.”

He should just make sure he’s safely away should those words happen to be proven untrue in the near future.

Meanwhile, Mary walks through the court. Stopping her, Philip explains he couldn’t wait to be properly introduced. He asks to kiss her hand, and she agrees. He asks if they can meet again under the supervision of AC, and she agrees.

In London, Francis and an older woman talk. He tells her he’s been trying to kill someone, and she asks if he managed it. She says she has some new girls for him to look at, and it’s established most of them, though aristocratic, are illegitimate.

Then, walking through a dormitory of young women and men, he finds Kathryn Howard. I shall dub her Kitty-Kat.

The next scene has Francis telling Charles Brandon and Edward about Kitty-Kat, and it’s established she’s a distant relation to Norfolk.

Have the first two completely forgotten what happened the last time they were involved with Henry’s involvement with one of Norfolk’s relatives? Francis wasn’t on the show in the first and second season, but historically, he helped Henry pursue Anne Boleyn.

Francis says Kitty-Kat’s background isn’t entirely conventional, and all Charles Brandon cares about is if she’s young and pretty. Francis calls her in for examination, and Charles Brandon asks how old she is. When she answers she’s 17, Edward muses aloud, “I wonder who taught her to count.”

Presumably, the same person who taught her not to smack him no matter how much, with him being a fictional character, he absolutely deserves it.

Charles Brandon wants her to tell them something about herself and her family. Her mother died when she was young, her father and stepfather sent her away to a permissive household, and she and the other children ran a little wild.

The three men agree she’ll be a good distraction for Henry. However, it seems Charles Brandon has the final say.

The fact he picks a sweet-tempered wild child for Henry says a lot about him. He has a tendency to make speeches, but most of the time, he’s quieter than people realise. He’s always had adventures of his own, but often, he’s content to follow Henry’s lead into mischief.

In AC’s chambers, they discuss Philip. AC tries to encourage the match, and Mary shows ambivalence. It’s announced he’s coming, and Mary doesn’t want to see him. AC directs her to hide in another room behind a curtain.

AC asks how Philip likes England, and he reveals her he could happily live in it. Bringing up Mary, she earns a death glare from the hidden princess. Heh.

Making it clear he’s quite smitten, he earns tons of points from the princess in question by expressing his respect for Catherine of Aragon.

At a feast, Mary and Philip dance, and Charles Brandon informs Henry it seems the contract AC and another man signed requires more than simple renunciation to break it. Henry notices Kitty-Kat talking to Edward.

Seeing this, Edward says Henry might summon her. She asks what she should say and do, and he advises her just to be herself.

It might be a better idea to say, ‘Just be very careful what sort of attention you pay to other men when around him, and for God’s sake, don’t do something idiotic like marry him, and then, have an affair with one of his grooms.’

Henry asks Charles Brandon about Kitty-Kat. When given some info about her, he orders Charles Brandon to bring her to him.

Next, Kitty-Kat is deposited in Henry’s chambers. It’s established she’s unmarried and can read enough to write letters. He jealously asks who she’s receiving/writing/exchanging letter from/to/with, and she answers, “Nobody.” He asks if she has many houses, and she giggles in response.

Back at the feast, Philip pretends Mary stepped on his foot so that he can get her alone in the hallway. They kiss. He asks if he can kiss her again, and she enthusiastically agrees.

Meanwhile, Henry takes off a ring to show Kitty-Kat, and her response to him explaining the serious history behind it is to slip the ring underneath the lower part of her dress.

Later, when the feast hall is being cleaned up, Mary and Philip are all gooey-eyed as they say good night.

The next day, Henry and Cromwell discuss a palace Henry will be able to inspect soon, and Henry says he wants to give some land to Kitty-Kat. He brings up the binding pre-contract, but Cromwell insists AC could personally repudiate it. Henry says he doesn’t consider her his lawful wife. Then, as he did with Wolsey, he assures Cromwell of how valuable he finds him.

Leaving, Cromwell is literally surrounded by petitioners. This doesn’t make Charles Brandon and Edward happy. Cromwell manages to extract himself as his servants take the papers from the petitioners, and Charles Brandon goes to see Henry.

His meeting with the French ambassador went well, and the French secretly want Henry’s help in breaking from the emperor. He adds the French don’t like Cromwell, and it might help if Cromwell was removed.

At night, Francis gets in a boat with a hooded person.

Early morning, he enters Kitty-Kat’s house alone. When he gives her a gift from Henry, she asks him to express her gratitude.

Appearing, the hooded person removes the hood to reveal Henry.

Francis leaves, and Henry whispers something to Kitty-Kat. She starts to undress, and he begins putting candles out with his fingers.

Apparently, he doesn’t care if he can feel her when he touches her or care if touching her causes him pain.

She poses on a bed, and he blows a candle out.

The next scene is of AC unhappily sewing by the fire.

Meanwhile, Gardiner goes through a darkened corridor to enter a room containing Charles Brandon, Francis, and the Seymours minus Tom.

Elsewhere, Gregory approaches his father, and seeing his solemn expression, Cromwell worriedly asks, “Gregory, what is it?”

“It’s a boy,” Gregory answers. “I have a son.”

Relieved and happy, Cromwell hugs him.

Meanwhile, Henry is visiting the princeling.

At the next council meeting, Cromwell is arrested for treason. Everyone but Rich shows support of his arrest. He’s thrown in a cell.

More warned him of this day. No one warned Wolsey, no one needed to warn More, and the third and last of the Thomases saw and was given the warnings the others didn’t receive. It just wasn’t enough. They all ended up in a cell, and they all ended up dead by Henry’s order.

Next, AC apologetically tells Mary that Philip’s been sent away by Henry. Trying to be strong, Mary claims, despite her fondness for him, she never would have married a Lutheran. When she leaves, however, she can’t stop her tears from falling.

At Cromwell’s trial, Gardiner gives a speech against Cromwell. It incites everyone but Rich. “Traitor!” Charles Brandon yells.

Sitting beside Rich, Edward asks, “It is true that you loved this man, Sir Richard?”

“As a friend,” he miserably answers. “But I chiefly loved him for the love I thought I saw him bear towards the king above all others. But now, if he be a traitor, then, I am sorry I ever loved him or trusted him, and I’m very glad that his treason is discovered in time.”

There’s a shot of the gardens.

In the next scene, Henry and AC are having a meal. He asks if she’s happy and being treated well, and she answers she has no complaints. Henry points out she’s not eating.

She starts to say something, but he interrupts. He’s sending her to some other palace, supposedly for her health.

Edward comes in, and Henry excuses himself. Edward quietly says, as Head of Church, Henry can annul the union, but to be as diplomatic as possible, they should find proof of non-consummation as well as the fact Henry never truly consented to the marriage. Henry orders Edward to have someone get Cromwell to write a deposition on the matter.

To ensure Charles Brandon stays on his good side, Edward sends him.

In the cell, Charles Brandon explains what Henry wants, and when Cromwell agrees and expresses his loyalty to Henry, Charles Brandon responds by gleefully informing Cromwell about how commissioners were sent to Cromwell’s house on Henry’s command.

Later, Cromwell writes, and the scene transitions to Kitty-Kat reading the letter to Henry. There are more intercuts of the two scenes. Kitty-Kat shows subtle unease when she reads Cromwell’s pleas for his life.

Meanwhile, CB is quietly standing nearby as her husband and several other people take glee in Cromwell’s upcoming execution.

If he doesn’t want her to think he’s a monster, maybe, he should not do things like this when she’s around.

Next, Francis and Tom get the executioner extremely drunk.

Later, Cromwell is led out of his cell.

In the next scene, Edward comes to see AC. He updates her on Henry’s plan to annul the marriage, and she gives her consent.

He says her Henry will give her an annuity and some lands for as long as she stays in England, and she’s free to marry whomever she chooses. She asks him to tell Henry she hopes he’ll visit her occasionally and will live a long, healthy life. After he leaves, her tears come, and she stumbles.

Outside, Cromwell walks to the scaffold, and Gregory appears. Cromwell puts a hand on his shoulder before being forcibly urged onto the scaffold. Terrified, Cromwell nevertheless gives a relatively calm speech about him being a sinner and asking God for forgiveness. Then, he cries when he says the obligatory good things about Henry and wishes long live and prosperity for Prince Edward.

Elsewhere, Henry and Kitty-Kat ride across a field to look at the now-realised fantasy palace.

Back to Cromwell, he says the crowd should take warning from him. Blaming his pride for his current predicament, he kneels down on the block. Saying a prayer, he bids the crowd to pray for Henry, the council, the clergy, and the people. Then, realising how hung-over the executioner is, he asks them to pray for him. Finally, he looks at his son before presenting his head.

Unfortunately, the executioner botches things so badly that a sympathetic guard finally pries the axe out of his hand to deliver the final stroke himself.

The episode ends with Henry in bed, and outside, a naked Kitty-Kat calls for him from a swing.

Fin.


End file.
